SKINS.— See Bottle and Wine.
SKULL, PLACE OF
SLAVE, SLAVERY
641
SKULL, PLACE OF.— See Golgotha.
SKY.— In the two places (Mt 16^ Lk 125«) where tliis word occurs in the AV of the Gospels, the term ' heaven ' is substituted in RV. There is no doubt that this tends towards consistency of ren- dering, as heaven is the translation of the Greek word (ovpavds) elsewhere (see Redness of Skv). Where ' sky ' is referred to in the Gospels it is the usual sense of cloud region or aerial expanse that is intended. This was the primary sense, indeed, of ovpavhs — the firmament, the vault above the earth. There is notliing in the two passages above to dift'erentiate the 'sky' from the 'heaven' of Mt 24^1. The word is the representative of the Hebrew D^SV* the upper regions. It reflects the old supposi- tion that the firmament was an actual canopy above the earth. Still the figurative use of the term is indispensable even in scientific treatises (like, for instance, Tyndall's Fragments of Science). In botli passages the immediate reference is to the meteorological interpretations of the colour of the sky. W. S. Kerr.
SLAVE, SLAVERY.— While SoOXoj is the general term for 'a slave,' ol/c^rT/s (Lk 16'^; cf. Ac 10'', Ro I'i^, 1 P 2'^) denotes specifically one employed in household service or in immediate attendance upon the master or decrirdrrjs. Except in the latter form the institution did not flourish amongst the Jews in NT times. Field-work was done generally by hired labourers {/xiadtos, Lk 15" ; or le.ss technically epydTTjs, Mt IQi" 20', cf. Ja 5^). In large houses, especially of a Gentile (Lk 7^) or foreign type, there would be slaves, generally of non-Jewish or mixed blood, as also in the great establishments of the Sadducfean and priestly aristocracy. In Palestine the institution was familiar enough in experience as well as tradition to supply popular ilhistrations and give point to practical religious teaching ; but features met Avith in Greek and especially in Roman usage must not be transferred without modifica- tion to the Jewish practice. Not only were the dimensions ditterent, but the prevalent oppression and fear in the one case were replaced in the other by a general spirit of kindliness and content.
1. Jewish slaves abroad. — On several occasions before the Fall of Jerusalem, large numbers of Jews had been deported and sold into captivity. Such incidents were frequent dui'ing the wars of the Seleucids and Ptolemies (cf. 1 Mac 3^\ 2 Mac 8-'), and recur during the period of the Roman over - rule (Jos. BJ vi. ix. 3). Herod ordained that thieves should be sold to foreigners ; but the enactment aroused such a degree of animosity as rendered its enforcement impracticable (Jos. Ant. XVI. i. 1). The supply of Jewish slaves was kept up almost entirely from among prisoners taken in the numerous campaigns, and the children of those who were already in captivity, with a few who lost their freedom under the laws of the foreign country or city in which they resided. Their treatment, like that of other slaves, was as a rule cruel to the degree of barbarity. Exceptions are met with, where courtesy to slaves is commended, as by Seneca {Ep. xlvii.). But the great mass of evidence is on the other side. Pallas, a brother of Felix (Ac 23^^), considered his slaves too abject to be spoken to, and would signify Ins pleasure to them only by a gesture or nod (Tac. Ann. xiii. 23). Tlie slave was merely property, and could be trans- ferred like any other property. He was incapable of contracting a legal marriage, and was not regarded as invested with any rights. On the ground of expediency, he was gradually protected against excessive cruelty. By the Lex Petronia, wliich may have been first enacted in the time of Augustus, a slave could not be punished by con-
VOL. II. — 41
demnation to fight with gladiators or wild beasts ; and the master's power of life and death was threatened, if not actually restricted, by Claudius. In such hesitating improvements of their condition Jewish slaves abroad would share.
The redemption of Jewish slaves was regarded in theory as a sacred duty (cf. Neh 5*) ; but there is no evidence of any general attempt during our period to acquire the merit of such service. The wealth of the countrj^ was chiefly in the hands of those sections of the people in whom racial feeling was not strong ; and the majority were at once too poor and too nmch hindered by political condi- tions to be able to act in other than rare individual cases. The price of a slave, or of his redemption, varied with his qualities, and with the state of the market. Exact particulars for the 1st cent, are not available. Ptolemy Philadelphus redeemed Jewish captives in Egypt at the price of 120 drachmae, or about £4 each (Jos. A7it. xil. ii. 3). And Nicanor endeavoured to raise the Roman tribute of 2000 talents by the sale of Jews at the rate of ninety per talent (2 Mac S^'^'-).
2. Slaves in Palestine. — Nehemiah's influence had made it a fundamental rule in Jewish practice that no Jew should be held as a slave by another Jew (cf. Nell 5^) ; and as the rule obtained also in Talmudical times (cf. Winter, Die Stellung der Slclaven, 10 ft". ), it is almost certain to have been observed in the intermediate period. Even thieves were not to be reduced to a state of permanent slavery ; and while the disorganization of trade due to a strict observance of the Sabbatic law of Dt 15^"'^ was prevented by Hillel's statute of Prosbol, wliich made registered debts always recoverable, other means were adopted of freeing poor Jews from the burden of their mortgages than that of their reduction to actual servitude. Work was accepted and required as a substitute for repay- ment, but as far as possible the personal freedom of the debtor was respected. In regard to females, the Talmud decides that a wife can never be sold into slavery, but that a daughter under marriage- able age can ; with the apparent proviso that, if she be sold again, the purchaser must not be a foreigner. Amongst the Essenes, the holding of slaves was unknown and not allowed (Philo, ed. Mang. ii. 457, 482 ; Jos. Ant. XVIII. i. 5). In a few of the great houses of alien officials there would be the retinue usual in other lands ; but even then the slaves would be chiefly of Canaanitish or mixed blood. In Jewish houses free service was the rule for men, whilst some of tlie girls might be servile in status, though comparatively unrestrained. By law, and even more eftectually by usage and public sentiment, tliey were protected from many cruelties customarily practised upon their class elsewhere.